Matthias, in 1616, gave as a fief the office of postmaster

to him and his descendants.

yet it is difficult to trace with certainty the period of their introduction. Some writers carry it back to the times of the republic; posts and post-offices, under the names of statores and stationes, having been then, it is said, established by the senate. Whether this was the case or not, Suetonius assures us that Augustus instituted posts along all the great roads of the empire. At first the dispatches were conveyed from post to post by young men who run on foot, and delivered the dispatch to others at the next stage. By and by Augustus sub. stituted, in room of these, horses and chariots, both for the conveyance of dispatches and the convenience of travelling. His successors continued the same establishment; to the maintenance of which every subject of the empire was obliged to contribute. Post horses are mentioned in the Theodorian code de cursu publico; but these were only the public horses appointed to be kept there for the use of the public messengers, who before this in stitution seized any that came in their way. At each post station, according to Procopius, 10 horses and as many postilions were kept, and the usual rate of their travelling was from five to eight stations a-day.

It is to be observed, however, that all these establishments of posts in ancient times were formed as much, if not more, for travelling stations, as for the mere conveyance of letters and dispatches. This latter object, it is true, was thereby secured; but the epistolary correspondence of antiquity was probably at no time so extensive as to require or maintain post-offices on the footing of modern posts, for the mere conveyance of letters. It is in later times only, when the extension of commerce and diffusion of literature give occasion to frequent communication, that these establishments are to be looked for.

The earliest institution of posts that occurs in modern history is about the year 807 by the emperor Charlemagne; who, having reduced under his dominion Italy, Germany, and a part of Spain, established three public posts at the public expence, to carry on the communication with these three provinces. The institution of posts however, like many other institutions of that emperor, dropped at his death, and for a considerable time afterwards no traces of any such establishments are to be found. We cannot indeed discover them with certainty sooner than 1464, when that restless and suspicious prince Louis XI. established posts in France, that he might be the sooner advertised of all that passed in his own or the neighbouring kingdoms. He employed in He employed in this service 230 couriers, who delivered the letters at the different stations, and in the various towns through which they passed in their course. Succeeding monarchs created at different times certain offices for the express purpose of superintending the posts; but the frequent changes to which these offices were exposed, prevented for a long time the establishment of any regular system of posts in that kingdom; insomuch that in 1619 the author of the life of the duke d'Epernon says the packet or letter office was not yet set up in France. Former establishments, it is probable, were solely for the use of the court, not for the general good of the nation. From France, the institution gradually spread through several other parts of Europe. In Germany, Lewis Hornig assures us they were first introduced by Count Taxis, who settled them at his own expence; in acknowledgement for which the emperor

In England, the establishment of posts in some form or other appears as early as the reign of Edward III. but the notices concerning them are so vague, that no account can be given of them. In the reign of Edward VI. however, some species of posts must have been set up, as an act of parliament passed in 1548, fixing the rate of post-horses at one penny per mile: The posthorses here referred to were, it is probable, chiefly for travelling, and the carriage of letters or packets only an occasional service. In 1581, we find in Camden's Annals mention made of a chief postmaster for England being appointed.-How his office was managed, does not clearly appear; the limited state of the correspondence of the country probably rendered it of trifling consequence. King James I. originally erected a post-office, under the controul of one Matthew de Quester or de l'Equester, for the conveyance of letters to and from foreign parts; which office was afterwards claimed by Lord Stanhope; but was confirmed and continued to William Frizel and Tho. Witherings, by King Charles I. in 1632. Previous to this time, it would appear that private persons were in use to convey letters to and from foreign parts; all such interference with the postmaster's office is therefore expressly prohibited. King Charles, in 1635, erected a letter office for England and Scotland, under the direction of the above Thomas Witherings. The rates of postage then established were, twopence for every single letter for a distance under 80 miles; fourpence from 80 to 140 miles; sixpence above 140 miles. The allowance to the postmasters on the road for horses employed in these posts was fixed at twopence halfpenny per mile for every single horse. All private inland posts were discharged at this time; and in 1637 all private foreign posts were in like manner prohibited. The posts thus established, however, extended only to a few of the principal roads; and the times of transmission were not in every case so. certain as they ought to have been.

Witherings was superseded for abuses in the execution of his offices in 1640, and they were sequestrated into the hands of Philip Burlamachy, to be exercised. under the care and oversight of the king's principal secretary of state. On the breaking out of the civil war great confusions and interruptions were necessarily occasioned in the conduct of the letter-office; but it was about that time that the outline of the present more extended and regular plan seems to have been conceived by Mr Edmond Prideaux, who was afterwards appointed attorney-general to the commonwealth. He was chairman of a committee in 1642 for considering the rate of postage to be set upon inland letters; and some time after was appointed postmaster by an ordinance of both houses of parliament; in the execution of which office he first established a weekly conveyance of letters into all parts of the nation. In 1653, this revenue was farmed for 10,000l. for England, Scotland, and Ireland; and after the charge of maintaining postmasters, to the amount of 7000. per annum was saved to the public. Prideaux's emoluments being considerable, the common council of London endeavoured to erect another post-office in opposition to his; but they were checked by a resolution of the house of commons, declaring that the office of postmaster is, and ought to be, in the sole power

and

treble letters treble, an ounce weight quadruple post- Post. age; all above are charged by the weight in the same proportion. The rates of postage have since that time been again increased.

About the year 1784, a great improvement was made in the mode of conveying the mails, upon a plan first suggested in 1782 by Mr John Palmer. Diligences and stage-coaches, he observed, were established to every town of note in the kingdom: and he proposed that government, instead of sending the mails in the old mode, by a boy on horseback, should contract with the masters of these diligences to carry the mail, along with a guard for its protection. This plan, he showed, could not fail to ensure much more expeditious conveyance, the rate of travelling in diligences being far quicker than the rate of the post; and it was easy to carry it into execution with little additional expence, as the coach owners would have a strong inducement to contract at a cheap rate for conveying the mail, on account of the additional recommendation to passengers their carriages would thereby acquire in point of secu rity, regularity, and dispatch.

Though government beartily approved of this plan, and the public at large were satisfied of its utility; yet, like all new schemes, however beneficial, it met with a strong opposition: it was represented by a number of the oldest and ablest officers in the post-office, not only as impracticable, but dangerous to commerce and the revenue. Notwithstanding of this opposition, however, it was at last established, and gradually extended to many different parts of the kingdom; and, upon a fair comparison, it appeared that the revenue was improved, and the plan itself executed for 20,000l. per annum less than the sum first estimated by Mr Palmer.

and disposal of the parliament. This office was farmed by one Maubey in 1654. In 1656 a new and regular general post-office was erected by the authority of the protector and his parliament, upon nearly the same model that has been ever since adopted, with the following rates of postage: For 80 miles distance, a single letter twopence; for a greater distance, not out of England, threepence; to Scotland, four pence. By an act of parliament passed soon after the restoration in 1660, the regulations settled in 1656 were re-established, and a general post-office similar to the former, but with some improvements, erected. In 1663 the revenue of the post-office was found to produce 21,500l. annually. In 1685 it was made over to the king as a branch of his private income, and was then estimated at 65,000l. per annum. The year after the revolution the amount of the post-office revenue was 90,5041. 10s. 6d. At the union the produce of the English post-office was stated to be 101,101l. In 1711 the former establishments of separate post-offices for England and Scotland were abolished; and by the stat. 9. Anne, c. 10. one general post-office, and one postmastergeneral, was established for the whole united kingdom; and this postmaster was empowered to erect chief letteroffices at Edinburgh, at Dublin, at New York, and other proper places in America and the West Indies. The rates of postage were also increased at this time as follows. In England, for all distances under 80 miles 3d.; above 80 miles 4d. From London to Edinburgh 6d. In Scotland, under 50 miles 2d.; from 50 to 80 miles 3d.; above 80 miles 4d. In Ireland, under 40 miles 2d.; above 40 miles 4d. By the above act all persons, except those employed by the postmaster, were strictly prohibited from conveying letters. That year the gross amount of the postoffice was 111,4611. 17s. 10d. The nett amount, on a medium, of the three preceding years, was, in the printed report of the commissioners for the equivalent, stated to be for England, 62,000l. and for Scotland 2000l. In 1754 the gross revenue of the post-office for Great Britain amounted to 210,663l.; in 1764 to 281,535.; and in 1774 to 345,4211.-The privilege of franking letters had been enjoyed by members of parliament from the first erection of the post-office; the original design of this exemption was, that they might correspond freely with their constituents on the business of the nation. By degrees the pri vilege came to be shamefully abused, and was carried so far, that it was not uncommon for the servants of members of parliament to procure a number of franks for the pur pose of selling them; an abuse which was easily practised, as nothing more was required for a letter's passing free than the subscription of a member on the cover. Το restrain these frauds, it was enacted, in 1764, that no letter should pass free unless the whole direction was of the member's writing, and his subscription annexed. Even this was found too great a latitude; and by a new regulation in 1784, no letter was permitted to go free unles the date was marked on the cover in the member's own hand writing, and the letter put into the postoffice the same day. That year the rates of postage were raised in the following proportions: an addition of Id. for a single stage; id. from London to Edinburgh; Id. for any distance under, and 2d. for any distance above, 150 miles. An addition to the revenue of 120,000l. was estimated to arise from these regulations and additional rates. The rates now mentioned are those upon single letters: double letters pay double,

The present establishment of the general post-office for Great Britain, consists of two postmasters-general, a secretary, surveyor, comptroller-general, and upwards of 150 assistants and clerks for the bead letter office in London; the number of deputy postmasters and other officers through the kingdom is very considerable, but not easy to ascertain with accuracy, as it must frequently vary with the changes made in the establishment of country posts. The total expence of this branch of the revenue in 1778 was 149,0291, 175. 20.; the gross produce may be reckoned at 650,cool.

The first accounts we have of the establishment of a post-office in Scotland reach no farther back than 1635, when Charles I. erected one both for Scotland and England. The post to Scotland by that appointment was to run night and day, to go from London to Edinburgh and to return in six days, taking with it all letters intended for any post-town in or near the road; the rate of postage from London to Edinburgh was 8d. for a single letter. The expedition with which the post went from London to Edinburgh at this time, is indeed surprising, considering the nature of the roads; perhaps, however, though the king made the regulation that it should go and return in six days, the journey was not always performed in the specified time. During the government of Cromwell, the public post conveyed letters to Scotland as well as England; the postage from London to Scotland was only 4d. After the Restoration, when the post-office was erected for England, mention is made in the act of parliament of the conveyance of letters to Scotland; and the postage to Berwick

the controul of the postmaster-general for Great Britain. From this head letter-office posts were establish. ed to the different parts of Scotland.

Berwick is fixed at 3d. For some time after, however, we find no establishment by act of parliament of an internal post in Scotland. In 1662, a post between Ireland and Scotland was first established; and the privy council gave Robert Main, who was then postmastergeneral for Scotland, an allowance of 200l. sterling to build a packet-boat for conveying the mail between Portpatrick and Donaghadee: the postage to Ireland was 6d. In 1669, a post was established to go between Edinburgh and Aberdeen twice a-week; and between Edinburgh and Inverness once a-week: the rate of postage was fixed, for 40 Scots miles 2d. and for every 20 miles farther an additional penny.

These appear

to have been the only public posts in Scotland at that time; but as they could not suffice for the correspondence of the country, there must have been more, either under the direction of the postmaster, or in the hands of private persons; probably there might be of both kinds. In 1690, an act for the security of the common post was passed, subjecting robbers of the mail to capital punishment. It was not till 1695 that the establishment of the post-office in Scotland received the sanction of parliament: posts were then appointed for all parts of Scotland; the rates of postage were fixed, for any place within 50 miles of Edinburgh 2d. between 50 and 100 miles 3d. all places above 100 miles 4d. By the same act, a weekly packet to Ireland was established, and 6ol. sterling annually allowed for that service. Though posts were established in consequence of this act, yet such was their mode of travelling, that they hardly deserved the name. Thus, for instance, the person who set out to carry the mail from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, in place of stopping at the first interme diate stage from Edinburgh, and delivering over the mail to another to be carried forward, went on with it himself the whole journey, resting two nights by the way, first at Dundee, and next at Montrose.

In this manner the mail was conveyed thrice a-week from Edinburgh to Aberdeen; but between most parts of Scotland the post went only twice, and between some only once a-week. The post-boy generally travelled on foot. Horses were but little used in the service of the post-office.

At the Union the Scots post-office was farmed for 11941. in 1710, the nett amount for Scotland was reckoned to be 2000l. The epistolary correspondence of Scotland must have been small indeed, when even the rates of postage then established proved so very unproductive. This may perhaps, however, be in part accounted for, by conjecturing, that as private posts had probably prevailed pretty much before 1695, it was long before these were entirely suppressed, the people still adhering to their old conveyances, and difficulties occurring in strictly enforcing the law; the amount of the post-office revenue, therefore, at the two periods above mentioned, probably exhibits a view of only a part of the correspondence of Scotland.

In 1711, it has been already mentioned, one general post-office was established for the whole united kingdom; but the postmaster-general was authorised to erect at Edinburgh a chief letter office for Scotland. This was accordingly done, and a postmaster-general for North Britain, with other necessary officers, appointed. All the deputy postmasters in Scotland are under his immediate direction, but he himself is under

For many years the post-boys generally travelled on foot, or, if on horseback, without a change of horses. It was not till about 1750 that the mail began to be conveyed from stage to stage by different post-boys and fresh horses to the principal places in Scotland, and by foot runners to the rest. The communication between London and Edinburgh was at first but thrice a week, and so slow, that the mail from London to Edinburgh was upon the road 85 hours, and from Edinburgh to London 131 hours. In 1757, upon a representation from the royal boroughs, regulations were fallen upon, by which the time was shortened to 82 hours in the one case, and 85 in the other. By the extension of Mr Palmer's plan to Scotland, the time has been still farther shortened to about 60 hours in each case.

The establishment of the Scots post-office consists at present of a postmaster-general, secretary, solicitor, and accountant, with a number of other clerks and as. sistants for the head office at Edinburgh; under its management are about 180 deputy postmasters for the different post-towns through Scotland.

The nett produce of the post-office for Scotland in 1733 was 5399l. in 1757 10,6231. in 1766 31,1031. In 1788 the gross produce was 55,8361. the expence 22,6361.; in 1793 the gross amount was about 64,000l. the nett produce about 40,000l.; in 1803 the gross produce was above 120,000l. the nett revenue about 97,000l.; in 1807 the gross produce was above 145,000l. the nett revenue towards 120,000l.

PENNY Post, a post established for the benefit of London and other parts adjacent, whereby any letter or packet under four ounces weight, is speedily and safely conveyed to and from all places within the bills of mortality, or within 10 miles of the city. It is managed by particular officers; and receiving houses are established in most of the principal streets, for the more convenient transmission of the letters. Some other large towns have instituted similar establishments.

About the year 1776, a penny-post was set up in Edinburgh by Mr Williamson, unconnected with the general post-office. It met with but indifferent encouragement for some years, doubts being entertained as to its punctuality in delivering the letters; by degrees, however, it seemed to be advancing in estimation, and was more frequently employed. Twenty years after, the general post-office, in virtue of the act of parlia ment prohibiting the conveyance of letters by any but those employed under the postmaster-general, took the penny-post entirely into its own hands; and Mr Williamson was allowed an annuity during life equal to what his private establishment yielded. Letters are now transmitted to the different quarters of Edinburgh, and the suburbs, three times a-day.

POST, a particular mode of travelling. A person is said to travel post in contradistinction to common journey travelling, when in place of going on during his whole journey in the same vehicle, and with the same horses, he stops at different stages, to provide fresh horses or carriages for the sake of greater convenience and expedition. As he thus uses the same mode of travelling that is employed for the common post, he is said to travel post, or in post, i. e. in the manner of a post.

In

In tracing the origin of posts, it has already been remarked, that the more ancient establishments of this kind were fully as much for travelling stations as the conveyance of letters. The relays of horses provided at these public stations for the messengers of the prince, were occasionally, by special license, allowed to be used by other travellers who had sufficient interest at court. Frequent demands of this nature would suggest the expedient of having in readiness supplies of fresh horses or carriages over and above what the public service required, to be hired out to other travellers on payment of an adequate price. We find, therefore, that in former times the postmasters alone were in use to let out horses for riding post, the rates of which were fixed in 1548 by a statute of Edward VI. at one penny per mile. In what situation the state of the kingdom was with regard to travelling post for more than a century after this period, we cannot now certainly discover; but in the statute re-establishing the post-office in 1660, it is enacted, that none but the postmaster, his deputies, or assigns, shall furnish post-horses for travellers; with a proviso, however, that if he has them not ready in half an hour after being demanded, the traveller shall be at liberty to provide himself elsewhere.

and either the distance in miles to be travelled, or that the horses are hired by the day, as the case happens to be. These tickets must be delivered to the bar-keeper at the first turnpike through which the traveller passes; and the turnpike-keeper gives, if demanded, what is termed an exchange ticket, to be produced at the next turnpike. The stamp-office issues to the person licenced to let post-horses such a number of these tickets as is required, and these must be regularly accounted for by the person to whom they are issued. As an effectual check upon his account, the turnpike-keeper is obliged to return back to the stamp-office all the tickets he takes up from travellers. Evasions are by these means rendered difficult to be practised without running a great risk of detection. In 1787, for the more effectually levying the post-horse duties, a law was passed, authorising the commissioners of the stamp office to let them to farm by public auction, for a sum not less than the produce in the year ending first August 1786.

In the advertisement published by the commissioners in consequence of this law, previous to the receiving proposals for farming them, the total amount of the duty for Great Britain is stated to have been, at the period above referred to 117,8731. The sum for which that duty was farmed in 1794 amounted in all to 140,030l. of which the district of North Britain was 6000l.

The rate fixed by the act 1695, in Scotland, for a horse riding post, was threepence per Scotch mile. By the act 9 Anne, c. 10. threepence a mile without, and fourpence a mile with, a guide, was the sum fixed for each horse riding post. The increase of commerce, and necessity for a speedy communication between different parts of the kingdom, have brought the mode of travelling post so much into use, that upon every great road in the kingdom post-chaises are now in readiness at proper distances; and the convenience of posting is enjoyed in Britain to a degree far superior to what is to be met with in any other country whatever.

Posting at last appeared to the legislature a proper object of taxation. In 1779 the first act was passed, imposing duties on horses hired either by themselves or to run in carriages travelling post; the duties were, one penny per mile on each horse if hired by the mile or stage, and one shilling per day if hired by the day. Every person letting out such horses was also obliged to take out a license at five shillings per annum. These duties were next year repealed, and new duties imposed, of one penny per mile on each horse hired by the mile or stage, and 1s. 6d. on each if hired by the day. A number of additional regulations were at the same time enacted for securing these duties. An addition of one halfpenny per mile, or threepence per day, for each horse riding post, was imposed in 1785, by Stat. 25 Geo. III. c. 51. The duty is secured, by obliging every letter of horses to deliver to the person hiring them a ticket, expressing the number of horses hired,

lers to duty. The old law, Stat. 9 Anne, c. 10. explained posting to be "travelling several stages, and changing horses;" but the acts imposing the posting duties expressly declare, that "every horse hired by the mile or stage shall be deemed to be hired to travel post, although the person hiring the same doth not go several stages upon a post road, or change horses;" and that " every horse hired for a day or less period of time, is chargeable with the duty of three halfpence per mile, if the distance be then ascertained; and if the distance be not then ascertained, with 1s. 6d. each horse." Horses hired for any less time than two days are by these acts to be deemed to be hired for a day. An action was brought in 1788, in the court of exchequer at Edinburgh, to determine whether several disputed cases fell under the meaning of the act, and were liable to duty, when the following decisions were gi

ven:

Saddle-horses both hired and paid by the mile, aud saddle-horses hired originally for an excursion, but afterwards paid by the mile, were found liable to duty according to the number of miles paid for; carriagehorses, where the carriage is hired and paid for only at the usual rate of outgoing carriages, and no more, whether the person hiring it does or does not return in it, were found liable to duty only for the number of miles out; but if the carriage be hired and paid for, or actually paid for, though not originally hired, at the usual rate of carriages employed both to carry out and bring back the same company, the duty was found to be exigible according to the number of miles both out and home taken together. Hackney-coaches in Edinburgh, hired and paid for less than two miles, were found liable to duty for one mile.

No duty was found to be exigible on saddle-borses

Post hired for a mere excursion, and paid for accordingly, 11 where the distance neither is nor can be ascertained; on Postulate hackney-coaches employed in the streets for less than a mile, or for an excursion or round of visits merely; and on horses or carriages hired for a journey of three days or more, and paid for accordingly, or paid for at the rate of three days, though the journey should actually be performed in two full travelling days. The general rule of these decisions was, that in every case, except unascertainable distance, or journeys exceeding two days, the mode of travelling fell under the legal definition of posting. The only point that may seem doubtful in the judgments here stated, is that where the duty is found chargeable by the number of miles both going and returning. Yet as the law expressly declares, that horses hired by the mile or stage are to be deemed posting, and as the number of miles for which they are hired can only be ascertained by the number paid for, it is clear, that where an addition to the outgoing charge is made on account of bringing back the person hiring the carriage, the carriage in that case is actually hired and paid for according to the number of miles both out and home, and the duty must fall to be rated accordingly. The doubtful points being now settled by the above decisions, the mode of levying the duty in Scotland has been regulated agreeably to them ever since the matter was thus determined.

POSTERIOR, a term of relation, implying something behind, or that comes after, another. In which sense it is used in opposition to prior and anterior.

The back and hips are the posterior parts of man. Aristotle has given prior and posterior analytics. A date is posterior to another when it is later or fresher. POSTERN, in fortification, a small gate, usually made in the angle of the flank of a bastion, or in that of the curtain, or near the orillon, descending into the ditch; whereby the garrison can march in and out, unperceived by the enemy, either to relieve the works, or to make private sallies, &c.

The word is also used in general for any private or back door.

POSTHUMOUS, a child born after the death of his father, or taken out of the body of a dead mother; from whence it is frequently applied to the works of an author not published till after his decease.

POSTIL, a name anciently given to a note in the margin of the Bible, and afterwards to one in any other book posterior to the text.

POSTING, among merchants, the putting an account forward from one book to another, particularly from the journal or waste-book to the ledger. See POST and BOOK-KEEPING.

POSTLIMINIUM, among the Romans, the return of one who had gone to sojourn elsewhere, or had been banished, or taken by an enemy, to his own country or

state.

POSTPONING, putting any thing after or behind another, with regard to time.

POSTSCRIPT, an article added to a letter or memoir containing something learnt or recollected after the piece was written.

POSTULATE, in mathematics, &c. is described to be such an easy and self-evident supposition, as needs no explication or illustration to render it intelligible; VOL. XVII. Part I. +

Postures are either natural or artificial.

Natural postures are such as nature seems to have had a view to in the mechanism of the body, or rather such as the ordinary actions and occasions of life lead us to exhibit while young, and while the joints, muscles, ligaments, &c. are flexible.

Artificial postures, are those which some extraordinary views or studies occasion us to learn; as those of dancing, fencing, &c. Such also are those of our balance and posture masters.

A painter would be strangely puzzled with the figure of Clark (a late famous posture-master in London) in a history-piece. This man, we are told in the Phil. Trans. had such an absolute command of his muscles, &c. that he could disjoint almost his whole body; so that he imposed on the great surgeon Mullens, who looked upon him as in such a miserable condition, he would not undertake his cure. Though a well-made man, he would appear with all the deformities imaginable; hunch-backed, pot-bellied, sharp-breasted, &c. He disjointed his arms, shoulders, legs, and thighs; and rendered himself such an object of pity, that he has frequently extorted money, in quality of a cripple, from the same company in which he had the minute before been in quality of a comrade. He would make his hips stand a considerable way out from his loins, and so high as to invade the place of his back. Yet his face was the most changeable part about him, and showed more postures than all the rest. Of himself he could exhibit all the uncouth odd faces of a quakers meeting.

POTAMOGETON, POND-WEED; a genus of plants belonging to the tetrandria class; and in the natural method ranking under the 15th order, Inundata. See BOTANY Index.

POTAMON, or POTAMO, was a philosopher of Alexandria. He kept a middle course between the scepticism of the Pyrrhonians and the presumption of the dogmatists; but attached himself to none of the schools of philosophy of his time. He was the first projector of the Eclectic sect; for though the mode of philosophising had been pretty common before, he was the first that attempted to institute a new sect on this principle. Diogenes Laertius relates, that not long before he wrote his Lives of the Philosophers, an Eclectic sect, saslixń is digos, had been introduced by Po-Enfield's tamo of Alexandria, who selected tenets from History of every

former sect. He then proceeds to quote a few particu- Philosophy. lars of his system from his Eclectic institutes, respecting the principles of reasoning, and certain general topics of philosophical inquiry; from which nothing further can be learned than that Potamo endeavoured to reconcile the precepts of Plato with those of other masters. Hh As